I used to think triceps kickbacks are worthless. I don’t do them, but I no longer think this, and might use them in the future.
Many people do fine with them and some even say their shoulders feel better doing them rather than presses in front.
Yes, the attachment to building a bigger bench press, to earn make my bones for a “strength base” and thinking that getting an ever-increasing bench press would build a bigger chest. Now I don’t do ANY barbell exercises for chest and stick to Hammer Strength incline presses, dumbbell presses, flyes, and dips.
I also don’t do standard deadlifts anymore and stick to stiff-legged deadlifts, usually with dumbbells.
I do back squats, but whenever there is a safety bar available in a different gym I visit, I do safety bar squats. My gym now has a buffalo bar, and I will be using that starting tonight for squats. The manager said he is going to eventually get a safety bar and I am looking forward to it.
I can put fat on relatively easily if I dont keep my diet in check, as in I could easily gain 3-4 pounds of it in a week or two if I just “let go” and eat whatever. I have managed to dial everything in to where I can stay a relatively lean 185ish without cardio, and now only need to use cardio to get really lean… but that took almost 10 years to get to that point.
I think it was 2 or 3 years ago @The_Mighty_Stu clued me in to the relationship between carbs and water weight after being glycogen depleted. I am usually up 3-4 pounds the next morning if I have >160g of carbs in a day. But it only takes 3 days below 110g to pull that weight back off.
I’ve been 165lbs with a 36" waist and 220lbs with a 36" waist, but I have never been below a 34.5" waist. Here’s hoping I will need less than 6 more years to get to where you are, @Lonnie123 I would love to be able to maintain a lean body without HIIT. I don’t hate doing HIIT, I just hate being useless for the rest of the day after I’m done.
Just curious as to why you wouldn’t do preacher curls anymore? I have heard and seen vids of them doing not-so-good things to people. Would you do them on a machine or with cables?
On the back training issue…does anyone have at their gym a Hammer Strength Pullover Machine? We have one and I’ve been using it instead of doing close, neutral grip pull downs just for a change and experimentation. I feel like I lose the contraction at the top and I feel it a lot in my rear delt(i think it’s rear delt, basically right above my armpit in my back) at the bottom of the rep, but i feel my lats working in the middle. Should I just shorten the range of motion or scrap it altogether?
I use it all day, every day, on back day. You should check to see if that is your teres minor or infra, or perhaps even your subscapularis. John Rusin has some SMR video on how to deal with the subscap, the others you can reach by hitting them in a stretched position, by putting pressure on them like you do with foam rolling. I like to do this one corners, like on a desk for example.
It may also help to not use your hands at all, if you have one that has elbow pads that is actually better for stimulating the lats because using your hands makes you want to use those other muscles. Also make sure you do the crazy arch that you see people do when they do the bench press, the lats are not activated unless you arch your back like that.
If you combine not using your hands and using the arch (again, as much of an arch as you can get) you will feel something you have not felt before and your lats will grow for it. It also is great for learning how training the lats should feel on even pulldowns. remember, where you want to feel it is in the area of the lats that covers the erectors, NOT at your armpits. This is why I suspect you are referring to your teres minor and infra, since those are the muscles that get stressed primarily when doing the exercise without those 2 points I mentioned.
Tuttle, thank you. I definitely am not arching, in fact i was doing the opposite and trying to keep my back flat against the pad. i will certainly try it with an arch next time. Also, I concur with the limited hand use as I try not to use them at all. The machine does have elbow pads.
I disagree. All one needs for back development are deadlifts, a row, and pull-ups done a minimum of three times per week on full-body and upper-lower routines. Even if one uses shit form, as long as the weights keep climbing, he’ll wind up with a massive back. Oh, and make sure the rows are usually Pendlay rows, the ones in which you come to a full stop on the floor after the eccentric. Even if you don’t feel a goddamn sensation or pump in your back from such basic training, the gains are gonna come. The mind-muscle connection thing is BS!
Haney, Yates, Ronnie… and that Caribbean guy… (what’s his name again?)… Oh yeah, Joel Stubbs. Ya can’t go by them; they’re all genes and drugs. I know these guys got great backs doing a lot of exercises for their backs–up to seven exercises in some cases with a shit-ton of volume–but ya can’t look at them for cues. You gotta look at what the data says. And uh, what the research says, not what top bodybuilders do.
And never use straps. That’s dysfunctional training. One needs a vice-like grip for real-world strength, not fake-world strength. Like… ya never know when you’ll need that grip to rescue yourself from falling off a cliff or something… or maybe just in everyday life when ya gotta carry a dozen or so grocery bags in each hand from the car to your kitchen.
PSYCH!
Sorry guys, but I get carried away here and there.
Same. Sometimes I think it takes me longer to try to grab all the bags at once, get the key out and open the door, than it would to take two trips. I’m still taking one.
Your advice seems a bit superfluous and redundant. If you develop the mind muscle connection, all you need is self-imposed tension, via flexing, in a given muscle to make it grow. Am I right or am I right?
That would imply that hypertrophy is localized and not systemic. Which we all know isn’t true. To prove this, I shall do nothing but chew gum 3 times a week for the next month and see if I gain an inch on my quads.
